AFrom the crowd of fans came the shouts of “front runner, front runner”, in the center circle Steffen Baumgart congratulated his coaching colleague Urs Fischer after the defeat: Union Berlin is still successful after the failed Europa League debut in the Bundesliga. The Irons won the duel of the previously unbeaten teams, who had started surprisingly well at 1. FC Köln, deservedly 1-0 (1-0). This puts them first in the table, at least for the time being. Freiburg can still overtake Borussia Mönchengladbach in the late game on Sunday.
After the final whistle, Baumgart let off a lot of steam at DAZN. The referee’s performance “gets on his balls”, mobbed the Cologne coach, who was dissatisfied with some decisions. “We have a run,” said Berlin’s captain Christopher Trimmel. His team “did it well at times, but we have to improve when it comes to playing with the ball”. Cologne attacker Florian Kainz was annoyed: “In the first half it was far too little.”
The Köpenickers, who suffered a 1-0 home defeat against Royale Union Saint-Gilloise from Belgium on Thursday, took the lead through an own goal by Timo Hübers (3rd). An earlier preliminary decision for Union was possible, but first Jordan Siebatcheu failed with a questionable hand penalty to Cologne goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe (10th), then a goal by Sheraldo Becker was disallowed for offside (13th). Positive for the capital: Timo Baumgartl was in the squad for the first time since he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in April, but he was not substituted on.
Baumgart still impressed
Steffen Baumgart conceded his first defeat of the season against his heart club of all people. He has been closely associated with Union since his time as a professional from 2002 to 2004. The family lives near the stadium, he is a member of the club and plays in the traditional team, his wife worked in the Berlin fan shop.
But it was difficult for Baumgart to concentrate on this game. In the run-up, he had said that after the riots before the Conference League game in Nice on Thursday (1-1), “it was not possible to go back to business as usual”. In contrast to his players, who were still in the cabin, the coach had followed the incidents at close range because he was locked in the stands. The emotional state was “okay again,” Baumgart said before the game at DAZN. Nevertheless, they are “pictures that you will not forget”.
Confused Cologne
In the hectic and eventful initial phase, the Cologne coach was very agitated on the sidelines. When Hübers deflected a shot from Becker into his own net, which was untenable for Schwäbe, he was stunned at first. When Luca Kilian got a header against the upper arm with his back to the shooter Robin Knoche and referee Benjamin Cortus whistled for a penalty, he was really upset.
And when the Swabian, who had been outstanding in the past few weeks, held against Siebatcheu, who had returned to the team after a muscle injury, Baumgart celebrated, gesticulating wildly in the direction of fourth official Thomas Gorniak. The Cologne acted still confused, the Berliners clearly set the tone.
When Leverkusen loanee Lennart Grill, who was in goal for the injured Frederik Rönnow for the first time, had to intervene for the first time (29th against Linton Maina), it could have been 0:3 or 0:4. So the game remained open, and after half an hour FC caught up. Maina then had a great chance to equalize immediately after the break, but he failed because of the strongly reacting Grill (47th). On the other side, Union captain Christopher Trimmel hit the ball against the post (58′). In the 81st minute, Cologne’s Kilian saw a yellow-red card.
